“Tactics in Counterinsurgency” (large pdf), a new Army Field Manual that was published on the website of the U.S. Army Combined Arms Center and then removed from public access, is now available on the FAS website.
The new manual, a substantial addition to the literature of counterinsurgency, was reported last week in the Washington Post and Inside the Army. “After The Post raised questions about its contents last week,” wrote Walter Pincus of the Post on March 31, “it was taken down” from the Army website, even though the document is marked for unrestricted release.
An email inquiry to the Army inquiring why it had been removed was not answered.
See “Tactics in Counterinsurgency,” U.S. Army Field Manual Interim 3-24.2, March 2009 (6.2 MB PDF, 307 pages).
“Setbacks are normal in counterinsurgency, as in every other form of war,” the new manual advises (p. C-5). “You will make mistakes, lose people, or occasionally kill or detain the wrong person…. If this happens, don’t lose heart, simply drop back to the previous phase of your game plan and recover your balance.”
This report serves as a landscape assessment and toolbox from which local governments can negotiate an informed position when it comes to the levers available to them and includes a first-of-its kind analysis of eight executed community benefits agreements.
When a hurricane hits, it’s all hands on deck – that goes for federal data, too. Pulling back from our investments in timely, accurate, and accessible public data will only make us less prepared and put us all at greater risk.
This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even less information to deliver better health outcomes for all Americans.
Soft law was never meant to be a permanent solution. Treating it as one, and letting the sandcastle stand in for the skyscraper indefinitely, is how we end up with a decade of voluntary commitments and no enforceable accountability to show for it.